I try to plan a weekend downtown once a year, we get a room at a hotel near the ballpark like the Marquis or Hilton Americas, catch the purple line light rail down to UH to catch a football game, spend the night downtown and catch an Astros game on Sunday afternoon.
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A lot of pro and con on the downtown skyline, but I think many are missing the point as far as the notch.
I think to have a stadium that has some memorable aspect is important to avoid just being a standard oval shape that could be any stadium in any city. I think the notch was an attempt to give the stadium a little more unique aspect to make it Houstonâs stadium. A skyline view is cheap as it is just a gap. It could have been integrated better, but it is what it is. If it goes away, does the design get some other unique aspect to make the stadium a cool place other than just an oval with no history. Most stadiums have some aspect to make them memorable, what will be TDECUâs unique aspect?
PS. I do not care one way or the other if they have the gap. Personally I do like being able to see something interesting from the upper levels of a stadium, but I think there are many choices if the notch went away. Maybe the party deck has an outward facing platform for those that want to look at the skyline.
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The notch was a great thing when we could not even afford enough ribbon boards to go around the stadium it was a cheap wow factor. In my opinion getting rid of it is ok but we need a new wow factor.
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I have a pretty radical opinion, but here it goes. A football stadium is meant to watch football and not the surroundings. TDECU serves that purpose very well and I donât give a flying flip about seeing the skyline.
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OF COURSE the game is the most important thing⊠sheesh. But other things are nice-to-haves as well.
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If and when the time comes to increase capacity, then the view goes. Simple.
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That is fine, my point was not the skyline. It is that stadiums need something to help them be a standout stadium. It was just cheap option when built to leave a gap as opposed to create something more unique. I do not fault them for trying to make something stylized about the stadium. I am happy they tried to make something to stand out more about the stadium even if it was not very successful.
You donât have to like a gap, but a positive contribution would be to suggest things that could be unique about the stadium. Think about other stadiums. Usually they have something unique or a storied history or both.
Things I remember in regards to stadiums- Az baseball has/had the swimming pool, Astros with the railroad theme, Wrigley with the ivy and history, Fenway with the big wall. Canât think of others that stand out. Football - JerryWorld with the huge scoreboard, but not very good to actually attend.
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Robertson served that purpose well, too. Why build a new one?
Obviously, the stadium serves many purposes beyond the simple act of watching about 30 minutes of football action spread across 3.5 hours. Itâs entertainment, not film study.
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a fellow HAIFerâŠpleasure to see u here
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Iâll sacrifice yâalls first born for an awesome canopy/awning system thing.
âAr wants your childrenâŠâ (bonus points if you know the movie. 
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The Rob was decrepit and not big enough to get into a P5.
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Obviously. But if you go to the stadium âjust to watch football,â then none of that other stuff matters.
Regardless of what YOU focus on at a football stadium, weâre tasked with entertaining way more people than we have historically brought into football games. You donât get there by saying âhey, just watch footballâ and ignoring everything else.
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I go to watch the game, but infrastructure facilities matter. What is the view of the city doesnât. It does make going to the game more enjoyable when you can go to the menâs room and have ample urinals and donât have water from above dripping on you.
Again it is what is inside the stadium, not what is outside. But you knew what I meant.
Eh, whatever. Some people care about different things than you do, but that doesnât render them meaningless, regardless of whether theyâre in the concourse or just visible from it. I canât see downtown from my seats, but I get it that people who could thought it was cool. For those folks, that view made the game a more enjoyable experience.
I always used the upstairs bathrooms at Robertson - minimized the dripping. 
The problem is the stadium of one at home in front of a big screen can be real nice, with or without a skyline view.
So instead of having t-shirt fans, youâre saying that UH should have recliner fans?
IMHO - barring a significant accessibility or financial limitation to attend the game in person - anyone claiming to be a UH fan that would rather stay home and watch the game on TV (when UH is playing a home game at TDECU) might as well become a Rice fan or a Northwestern fan because theyâre supporting the likes of them over UH.
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Stifling heat and humidity can be considered an accessibility issue.
Small stadiums catering to the wealthy donors (corporate or Insividual) appears to the the way things have gone for the past two decades. Regular fans can watch from home in the air conditioning.
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It seems to me that folks staying home to watch a UH home game on TV are more in the category of a âcasual observerâ than a fan. And so while it seems that both ATM and UT have a lot of t-shirt fans, it seems as though UHâs relatively empty stadium may show that UH may have a lot of recliner fans.
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We talked about that view a lot when the stadium opened. It was part of the stadium design. I was really disappointed when we largely blocked it just a few years later.
That said, itâs pretty much gone now anyway so Iâm good with doing away with it.
Not a goal or desire. It is a reality of today.